Building Safety Together: How LGBTQ+ Communities Shaped Survivor Support

Jun 17, 2026 | Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking

Building Safety Together: How LGBTQ+ Communities Shaped Survivor Support
By: India Ambrose, Advancement Manager

Pride Is More Than Celebration

When many people think of Pride Month, they think of celebration. And it is. But Pride is also rooted in survival, resilience, and the belief that people deserve safety and dignity in their lives. At a time when LGBTQ+ people had few legal protections or access to affirming services, communities created their own systems of care. They showed up for each other in moments of crisis and built support where none existed. That history is not separate from survivor support; it is deeply woven into it.

Building Safety When There Was No System

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were part of that early work. Both experienced homelessness, discrimination, and violence throughout their lives. After the Stonewall uprising in 1969, they became leading voices in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In 1970, they co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, known as STAR, created to support unhoused transgender and gender-nonconforming youth who had nowhere else to turn. STAR provided housing and community at a time when very few formal services existed for LGBTQ+ people. What they built was simple but life-changing: a place where people could be safe and cared for. That idea still matters today. Healing often begins with safety and connection.

Community, Visibility, and Belonging

Around the same time, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were building a different kind of support system. In 1955, they helped found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It began as a way for women to connect in a time when visibility carried real risk. Over time, it became a space for education, advocacy, and organizing. Del Martin also helped shift national conversations around violence in the home. From 1975 to 1977, she co-chaired the National Organization for Women’s Task Force on Battered Women and Household Violence. Her work helped bring domestic violence into public awareness and contributed to the growing movement that expanded shelters and survivor services nationwide. Her advocacy helped change how communities understood violence, and how they responded to it.

A Movement That Redefined Safety

During the 1960s and 1970s, feminist and survivor-led movements transformed how the United States understood harm in the home. During this same era, landmark laws such as the Equal Pay Act, Title IX, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act expanded women’s legal rights and opportunities. Alongside these broader advances, survivor advocates transformed public understanding of domestic violence and sexual assault. At the same time, advocates pushed something deeper than policy change. Domestic violence and sexual assault were no longer treated as private issues to be handled quietly. They began to be recognized as public harm that required community response, safety planning, and support systems. Shelters began to emerge. Hotlines were created. Advocacy models were developed. A new framework for survivor care took shape. These systems were built piece by piece, by survivors, feminists, and organizers who refused to accept silence as safety.

Where This Work Lives Today

Today, LGBTQ+ people continue to experience domestic and sexual violence at disproportionately high rates and often face additional barriers to seeking help. That reality is one reason survivor-centered, affirming services remain so important. Resilience was founded in 1977 as Center for Women in Transition during this same era of feminist and survivor-led organizing that reshaped how communities respond to violence. Nearly fifty years later, that work continues.

Every day, survivors come to Resilience seeking safety and support. Some are looking for a place to stay. Some are looking for advocacy while navigating the legal system. Some are looking for counseling. Some come after a sexual assault for a forensic exam. Some are simply looking for someone who will listen and believe them.

Our shelter is more than just a place to stay; it’s a space to breathe and rebuild.
Our advocates walk with survivors as they figure out next steps, often in moments that feel incredibly overwhelming.
Our nurses provide trauma-informed care when it matters most.
This is what systems of care look like in practice. Not abstract ideals, but the steady presence of people showing up for each other in important ways.

Pride and What Comes Next

The people who built this history understood that safety is not only about surviving harm. It is also about being part of a community that sees you and supports you. That idea is still at the center of this work. This Pride Month, we honor Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, and the many survivors and advocates who helped build pathways to safety when formal systems did not yet exist. Their work reminds us that Pride is not only about looking back, but also about continuing to build what survivors need today.

Because everyone deserves safety.
Everyone deserves dignity.
And everyone deserves access to the support they need to move forward.

 

Sources: